barolo

Are you serious Does this have to do with the hotel takeover or are they out of business? ← I believe it is part of the hotel makeover, not going out of business. Thank God I work in N. Van and can visit Thomas Haas at the mothership. ← You know I didn't get that impression from the note on the window. It was more in the vein of "it's been a slice, visit Thomas Haas in N Van from now on to get your fix"

I reported on the Majestic a while ago. It seems to be moving along rather slowly. ←

As reported today in Urban Diner Salt Tasting Room made it into Conde Nast Traveler's Hot Tables List for 2007 - one of 2 Canadian restaurants in a list of 39 from the US and Canada.

It was pretty dull, I agree. Oh well, I guess it is all part of the life of a chef who's working it like Feenie is.

Rob Feenie will be taking questions on the Globe and Mail website tomorrow, right here at 10:00 am PDT.

Alexandra Gill is back, writing about the Annual Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards: Read the whole story here: Salt rules The paper is launching a redesign next week and Gill's "provocative" (the Globe's description) column will be moving to Wednesday's paper.

Not to put you on the spot (as some of the new judges are members on eG) but what exactly did you notice? Did you feel the impact was a positive thing? I thought not awarding a Gold in the "Best New Design" category was a bit of a cop-out, but that's a minor quibble. Some of the winners were predictable ... e.g. Salt, "C" for Best Seafood (is that really all we have??), Vij's for Indian and Tojo's for Japanese (can't we just have an Asian category and let them all duke it out?) ... and some were just, um odd (Lumiere is Formal French? ). I know this is all subjective, but that's what caught my eye. There's a small typo on the VanMag web site that lists The Pointe at the Wick as Best of the Okanagan. As much as Jaimie may wish the Wick was in Kelowna, it just ain't. A. ← Well the fact that Hon's wasn't on the Best Casual Chinese was a good sign. I don't know a lot about Chinese cuisine, but I know there's no way Hon's represents the best in a city that has a reputation for good Chinese food like Vancouver does. What I noticed is lots of names that are unfamiliar to me. My perception is that there was more depth and variety of restaurants explored by the judges this year. So, yes, I thought it was a positive thing and the results are helpful to someone like me who is not especially familiar with the cuisine. I agree that many of the winners are predictable but I think that is a sign that these restaurants are working to stay at the top of their game and that they have some depth. If we had a new "best" each year, I'd wonder what the problem with last year's winner was. I thought the best Formal French designation for Lumiere seemed a bit odd too. Did you notice that they eliminated the Best Barbeque category? I seem to recall some rather pointed comments here last year about that category when ABC Country Restaurants made it to the winners circle - or were they a runner up? I also noticed they no longer are counting points for each winner - or at least not publishing them - I'm not sure whether that makes any difference overall as it seems that the whole judging system was overhauled this year. They are subjective but, as I've said before, humans love to categorize and rank things and, even more, to argue about the right categorization and rankings, so I think awards are here to stay.

The results are posted on the Vancouver Magazine website: 18th Annual Restaurant Awards . On my way home yesterday after work I saw a number of award attendees staggering home, loot bags in hand. I'm sure there were more than a few parties afterward so that may explain the slow posting. I was delighted to see Tony Peneff of Parkside on the Premier Crew list. I also noticed the impact of new judges on some of the category winners - best Chinese in particular I'd say. Congratulations to the winners!

There's a feature on Vancouver in the April 2007 National Geographic Traveler. Vancouver local Stephen Wong features Legendary Noodle, West, Raincity Grill, Tojo's, Sakae, Toshi, Sha Lin Noodle House, Kintaro, Kwong Chow, Sun Sui Wah, Kirin Seafood, Noou Mahal, Chutney Villa, Ashiana Tandoori and Zanzibar Cafe in the dining section. Meanwhile another Vancouver local, Rhonda May, covers Vancouver dining for the April 2007 Food and Wine and highlights Feenies, Fuel, Gastropod, Salt Tasting Room, C, Memphis Blues, Vij's, West and Tojo's. Shelora Sheldan writes about the Harris Green neighbourhood in the April 2007 enRoute feature on up and coming neighbourhoods. The Blue Fox Cafe, the Market on Yates, Zambri's, La Dolce Vita Deli & Cafe, Sally Bun, Moxie's and Cafe Brio are the "it" spots. Amanda Ross does the same for SOMA (south Main) where JJ Bean, Crave, Habit Lounge and the Ukrainian Orthodox Centre monthly dinner get the nod along with various other hip, trendy and movie star-frequented shops.

Can you give the examples of whom you are speaking of in the phrase written above please, Sandy? I'm curious. I can't speak for Sandy, but Chad Ward was given a book contract to a large degree on the strength of his eGullet writing on knives: An Edge in the Kitchen

There's also a brunch feature with dim sum recommendations by Lee Man (aka canucklehead here) in the April Vancouver magazine. I'd add a link but I can't access their site right now for some reason.

There's a few hundred posts that might help in this thread: Chinese in Vancouver. Scroll to the end for the latest comments.

I saw the Spring 2007 issue at the news stand on Granville Island today.

A very successful and popular restaurant in Vancouver, Vij's, does not take reservations. It is always full, there are always line ups, the restaurant gets rave reviews from pretty much everyone who visits from critics - local or not - to regular folk. That approach seems to work well as a business model for that particular restaurateur.

The Majestic is opening in the old Fresgo Inn spot on Davie. Here's the scoop according to CityFood:

It certainly does, and learn we do. It just takes a little time ← I think most Vancouver restaurateurs have been pretty savvy about this and understand it far better than I do. When I read my comment in your quote it sounds patronizing, which wasn't my intention.

Our tourism marketing folks must be working hard as I’ve been seeing various mentions in major magazines in the past few months. On the non-food and travel magazine front, I read a feature on Vancouver in the February DWELL Its mostly about Vancouver’s rather pathetic architecture: Two restaurants got a mention though: Vij’s and Salt: In a recent Gourmet Jamie Oliver declared that his two favourite Vancouver restaurants were Vij’s and Tojo’s. And the April Gourmet has a story on Whistler, commenting once again on the rather pathetic architecture but praising Araxi, Bearfood Bistro, Rimrock Café and Ciao-Thyme Bistro, as well as the skiing.

Yep. It is not going away. People will say what they think - whether it is here, Chowhound, dinehere.ca, their blog or whatever. Astute restaurateurs will keep cool, look for the patterns in the comments and respond accordingly. It sucks to have negative comments about your business posted to the whole world but it comes with the territory and the best thing to do is learn from it. Some of the restaurants that are most praised here did quite a bit of tweaking in their early days so second chances are often rewarded.

Mink, a “coffee and chocolate bar”, has opened in the old Portfolio Gallery and Café space at the base of the Terminal City Club tower on Hastings. It’s got espresso and non-espresso coffee, featuring the Clover coffee brewing system which is supposed to be the latest and greatest. They also have lots of artisanal chocolate bars featuring pastel packaging, cute names and high prices – think $5.00 for a 50 gram chocolate bar. It’s nice and sleek looking, the chocolate was good, and the people were very nice the two times I’ve been in. They plan to offer Belgian waffles, chocolate fondues and a few other chocolate foods, but no savoury items as far as I can tell. Here’s the website: Mink Chocolates

For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, the March/April EAT is out, on-line or on paper. It’s the “green” edition. Even my mother’s Canadian Living Magazine has a green edition for March so green is about as mainstream as you can get these days. Anyway there’s: Reports on Victoria restaurants: - Paradiso di Stella - Kadalima’s Bakery and Café - Guru Korean Bar and Grill - Café Vieux Montreal - Konpira - Sec’s on the Square - Habit Coffee and Culture Reports Vancouver restaurants: - La Buca - Lucky Diner - Fuel - Tojo’s - Prima Taste A report on Scott Jaeger at Bocuse d’Or Shelora Sheldan goes to New York for 5 days (my favourite article) Various green stuff 100 mile diet at Raincity Grill “Clean conscience wines” “Green Table” pioneers Etc, etc

Parkside: Website: here

Here's a listing from Open Table: Large Party Facilities There's lots of great options on this list.

All about Ambrosia apples They're British Columbia. It is a relatively new type so may not be available widely

Wasn't it at NU?

Marquis Wine Cellars is having a BC release this weekend: